Energy Poverty

The first comprehensive political science account of energy poverty, arguing that governments can improve energy access for their citizens through appropriate policy design. In today's industrialized world, almost everything we do consumes energy. While industrialized countries enjoy all the amenities of modern energy, more than a billion people in the developing world still lack energy access. Why is energy poverty persistent in some countries and not in others? Offering the first comprehensive political science account of energy poverty, Escaping the Energy Poverty Trap explores why governments have or have not been able to lead in providing modern energy to their least advantaged citizens. Focusing on access to modern cooking fuels and household electrification, the authors develop a new political-economic theory that introduces government interest, institutional capacity, and local accountability as key determinants of energy access. They draw on case studies from India, East Asia, Africa, and Latin America to offer the optimistic conclusion that governments can improve institutional capacity and local accountability through appropriate policy design. Energy poverty is a policy problem, the authors assert, and engaging with it as such offers new opportunities not only for ensuring equal energy access, but also for political, economic, and environmental development.

Energy Poverty and Vulnerability provides novel and critical perspectives on the drivers and consequences of energy-related injustices in the home. Drawing together original research conducted by leading experts, the book offers fresh and innovative insights into the ways in which hitherto unexplored factors such as cultural norms, environmental conditions and household needs combine to shape vulnerability to energy poverty. Chapters 1 and 15 of this book are freely available as downloadable Open Access PDFs at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

This open access book aims to consolidate and advance debates on European and global energy poverty by exploring the political and infrastructural drivers and implications of the condition across a variety of spatial scales. It highlights the need for a geographical conceptualization of the different ways in which household-level energy deprivation both influences and is contingent upon disparities occurring at a wider range of spatial scales. There is a strong focus on the relationships among energy transformation, institutional change and place-based factors in determining the nature and location of energy-related injustices. The book also explores how patterns and structures of energy poverty have changed over time, as evidenced by some of the common measures used to describe the condition. In part, this means investigating the makeup of energy poor demographics across various social and spatial cleavages. More broadly, it also argues that energy sector reconfigurations are both reflected in and shaped by various domains of social and political organization, especially in terms of creating poverty-relevant outcomes.

Around 2.8 billion people globally, also known as the "Other Third" or "energy poor", have little or no access to beneficial energy that meets their needs for cooking, heating, water, sanitation, illumination, transportation, or basic mechanical power. This book uniquely integrates the hitherto segmented and fragmented approaches to the challenge of access to energy. It provides theoretical, philosophical and practical analysis of energy for the low energy (non-hydrocarbon based) Other Third of the world, and how the unmet needs of the energy poor might be satisfied. It comprehensively addresses the range of issues relating to energy justice and energy access for all, including affordable - sustainable energy technologies (ASETs). The book breaks new ground by crafting a unified and cohesive framework for analysis and action that explains the factual and socio-political phenomenon of the energy poor, and demonstrates why clean energy is a primary determinant of their human progress. This is a must-read for all scholars, students, professionals and policy makers working on energy policy, poverty, and sustainable energy technologies.

Access to modern energy is central in addressing the major global challenges of the 21st century, including poverty, climate change and famine. However large parts of the world, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) have poor or no access to modern energy. Victoria Nalule argues that SSA countries have many common energy challenges which could be tackled with collective efforts through regional cooperation. By means of a legal and comparative analysis and a seven-step framework, the book explores the current regional mechanisms employed in Africa to address the challenge of energy poverty and access and whether they are effective in tackling the challenge of energy access, including regional energy infrastructure and regional energy regulations. Chapters discuss the evolution of regionalism in SSA and the role of regional cooperation in the development of renewable energy as a means of confronting both energy access and climate change. Specifically the nexus between energy access, renewable energy and climate change is covered as well as the potential of fossil fuels in addressing energy poverty. The establishment and development of regional energy infrastructure as one of the mechanisms of addressing energy access challenges in SSA and regional efforts to harmonise energy regulation are explored. Finally a concluding chapter provides recommendations for policy makers and other relevant stakeholders on how best to implement some of the suggestions made in previous chapters. International organisations, regional organisations, government officials, scholars and students with interest in the energy sector will highly benefit from this book.

One of the consequences of the post-socialist transformation of Eastern and Central Europe and the Former Soviet Union is the emergence of energy poverty, a condition where households are living in inadequately heated homes. This book provides the first full-length examination of the causes, consequences and patterns of energy poverty in former Communist countries. Based on empirical evidence that spans different spatial contexts and scales and compares these with other parts of the world, the book links household-level deprivation with broader organizational and political dynamics. The book also analyzes the lived experiences of scarcity and marginalization with the aid of two in-depth country studies. Furthermore, it identifies the socio-demographic factors that distinguish energy-poor families from the rest of the population, while stressing the need for a comprehensive range of policy tools to address energy poverty. As the issue of energy supply from the former Soviet Union is likely to become one of the most important economic and political problems across the whole of Europe within the next couple of decades, the book argues that there is a direct link between the energy crises experienced by the region, and the social aspects of energy use in households.

This book explores the issue of energy poverty in post-communist Europe and shows how it is viewed and addressed through public policies. This book will be of great interest to researchers in the fields of energy policy and comparative politics, and policymakers in post-communist countries and EU institutions.

An edited volume on energy poverty. Nearly one quarter of humanity still lacks access to electricity. Close to one third rely on traditional fuels like firewood and cow dung for cooking, at great cost to their health and welfare. The chapters explain the scope of the problem and suggest practical ways to fix it.